


oh no! words!

by fourshoesfrank



Series: autistic dc [1]
Category: Aquaman (2018)
Genre: Autism Spectrum, Autistic Arthur Curry, F/M, Yall heard it here, meras autistic too but im still workin on that fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-01
Updated: 2019-01-01
Packaged: 2019-10-02 00:04:16
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,013
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17253884
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fourshoesfrank/pseuds/fourshoesfrank
Summary: Atlanteans don't know shit about autism and Arthur really hates this





	oh no! words!

**Author's Note:**

> literally the only dc movies that i have seen are aquaman and wonder woman (i saw batman v superman but i dont remember any of it lol). i havent seen justice league and i don't particularly want to. bear with me here i just wanted to write some autism stuff lol

Arthur was never a normal child, even before he started talking to fish. He was used to being called a freak, used to being called stupid. He didn't like talking about anything that wasn't related to the ocean. He moved his body in ways that his classmates didn't. He looked everywhere but at the eyes of whoever he was talking to. He hated being touched by people that he didn't know, and even they knew that he had his limits. He was a loner, he wasn't a team player. He was autistic. 

Arthur's father couldn't afford a professional diagnosis. There was no way. Tom had known since Arthur was seven, but Arthur himself had only known since he was about nine and a half. The word 'autistic' seemed much nicer than the word 'retarded' to him; much less like an insult. 

Autistic was his word. It explained what happened when his brain got too loud (sensory overload), when his brain _stopped_ in Bad Situations (shutdowns), when he couldn't make his brain _stop_ and had to scream and thrash to make it work again (meltdowns), when he was given odd looks because he said the wrong thing (lack of social skills). It explained why he loved to twist his hair between his fingers and dig his toes into the sand (stimming), and why he loved knowing things about the sea (special interest). Of course, not all of these terms were around when Arthur was growing up, but as more and more people accepted the autistic community, more words were minted and Arthur found a use for every single one.

His favorite was 'stim' because of the fact that it was a completely new word. A word that he, an autistic man, didn't have to force a second connotation upon. The autistic community had literally invented a word. That was pretty fucking cool.  
Arthur also thought the sea was pretty fucking cool. When he began expressing an interest in the ocean, his father was both saddened and proud. This kid was definitely the child of a lighthouse keeper and a woman from the sea.

 

-

 

"Is imbecile a severe insult, to a human?" Mera asked. Arthur's head whipped around to look at her.

  
"What?"

Mera shrugged. "When I called you an imbecile, to try to get you out of challenging Orm, your entire body tensed up. Is it a...taboo word, on the surface? The way you reacted made me wonder."

"Ah." This wasn’t a good conversation to be having during the time that Arthur had set aside specifically to have fun. He looked back at the surface of the water around the small boat that the two of them were on. He didn't look back at Mera as he replied, “Not for most.”

“Then why...” Mera trailed off. Arthur didn’t know what to do, so he kept looking at the water. He knew Mera would get her thoughts in order eventually.  
She did, about a minute and a half later. “When you say ‘most,’ what do you mean?”

Oh, great, Arthur was gonna have to have a conversation about neurodivergence with a woman who thought eating flowers was a widespread behavior. Great. This was great. Arthur was not equipped to teach Mera about autism. 

Well, maybe he was. He wasn’t equipped to teach the average surface human much about it, but Mera was Atlantean. Yeah, Arthur probably knew enough beyond his own experience to teach her. 

“Most humans...Their brains work a certain way. We call people like that neurotypicals, because they have ‘typical’ brains.”

Mera nodded, gesturing for Arthur to continue. He took a deep breath. 

“Some humans don’t have brains like that. They’re called neurodivergent, or neuroatypical. There's a difference, but I can’t remember what it is. The point is, not all humans are neurotypical. Like me. I’m not.” I’m autistic. 

It should have been easy to say, especially because Mera would have no idea what that meant, but Arthur hesitated anyway. He hesitated, but he spat it out. 

“I’m autistic.” Arthur objectively knew that she wouldn't know the meaning of the word, but his heart still sped up. 

Mera nodded again, obviously not understanding. “What does that mean, though?”  
“I don’t know how to interact with people. That’s the biggest tip-off. I’ve told you before, I don’t work or play well with others. I can’t tell what they’re thinking. I don’t mean to make people mad, but I always end up breaking some rule that I didn’t know about. That’s one of the first things that people notice about me, usually.” Arthur glanced up at Mera’s face, trying to gage her expression. She was listening intently to his explanation. He cleared his throat and kept going. Hopefully he was making sense. 

“Another thing that autistic people have in common is that we hyperfixate on things. For me, it’s the ocean. Always has been. A lot of shitty neurotypicals think that autistic people only like math and trains, for some reason.

"Oh, and we have some problems with sensory shit. That's why I don't like being touched, 'cause it's painful and it feels bad. That's pretty much it, I guess." He couldn't think of anything else, except...

Mera motioned for Arthur to continue. “So what does being autistic have to do with the word imbecile?”

Oh, right, the whole reason they were having this conversation in the first place. Arthur groaned. "God, I hate this. A lot of people think that autistic people aren’t smart. There's no reason for it. It's bullshit." He sighed. "But it's true. And you, calling me stupid because I didn't understand the rules, hit a little close to home for me. That's all."

"I see." Mera did sound like she genuinely understood what Arthur was trying to say, which was a bit of a surprise. He hadn't expected her to just roll with the whole thing, but as always, Mera surprised him. In a good way.

"You really are the best," Arthur said with a smile. "And you're totally forgiven for calling me an imbecile, by the way."

**Author's Note:**

> give me some feedback pls........y’all’re Funky and Fresh keep it up in 2019!!!!!


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